Basic Trope: A child actor has a troubled adulthood.
- Straight: Holly Wood was a movie star during her childhood, but she couldn't find work as an adult and became an alcoholic.
- Exaggerated:
- Holly instantly becomes a juvenile delinquent after Playing a Tree in a School Play.
- Holly had one role: she appeared in a diaper commercial when she was six months old. Her life has been a train wreck ever since, as she began taking extremely hard drugs, got into fistfights on the daily (always lost), and participated in orgies of up to 1000 people.
- Downplayed:
- Holly finds work and leads a normal life, but misses the stardom she had in her youth.
- Holly has a few bumps (such as being teased for awkward puberty).
- Justified: The pressures of stardom can be hard on anyone and children are especially ill-equipped to deal with it.
- Inverted: Holly was a bratty, troubled kid until she started acting. It gave her purpose and a work ethic, making her an all-together nicer person.
- Subverted: Holly looks like she's going down the typical path of former child actors, but then she cleans up her act and becomes a successful actress.
- Double Subverted: Only to relapse again.
- Parodied: All child actors are Mercy Killed when they turn eighteen.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Holly keeps looking like she's finally got her act together, but then she's back in rehab again before you know it.
- Holly looks like she's going to hit rock bottom or go the way of other "child stars"... but course-corrects and has some bumps along the way.
- Averted:
- Holly didn't act as a child.
- Holly did act, but she doesn't have a troubled adulthood.
- Enforced: "Who wants to watch a show about a former child actress who has her life together?"
- Lampshaded: "Holly Wood was arrested this morning. That's how you know she's a former child actress."
- Invoked: Holly's stage parents deliberately push her down the path of drugs because they think it will make her even more famous.
- Exploited: The producers of a bizarre Stoner Flick, 'Jeffrey and Chao Go to Hardee's'', decide to hire Holly to play an unchained, Jerkass version of herself, which propels her back into fame, and helps her get a handle on her life.
- Defied: Holly's parents are supportive and keep her grounded despite her stardom. She never has problems as an adult.
- Discussed: "Holly Wood was such a nice kid until that first D.U.I."
- Conversed: "It's so sad how Tale of a Child Star ends with Holly Wood dying of a drug overdose."
- Deconstructed: Holly was an innocent little girl whose evil Stage Mom forces her into show business. All the directors, producers, and actors she worked with were Jerkasses who expected her to have an adult level of maturity. The general public has no sympathy for her, thinking she's just a Spoiled Brat who gets whatever she wants. With no one to help her, she turns to drugs and destroys her life. Does this remind you of Judy Garland?
- Reconstructed: Most of the people Holly meets in show business prove to be friendly and supportive. The pressures of stardom drive her to drugs, but she prevails with the help of her friends, becomes a successful adult actress, and is ultimately happy her parents got her into acting.
- Played for Laughs: Holly thinks she's still a huge star and expects to be treated like it, but actually no one cares about her anymore and she's considered a joke.
- Played for Drama: Holly is portrayed sympathetically as she struggles with her former stardom.
- Holly becomes a Stepford Smiler as she ends up having dealt with a lot of abuse and health issues when the cameras weren't rolling. When her stardom ends, she tugs at heartstrings when her exposé details how she truly felt.
- Holly's Stage Parents and many directors or agents are the Big Bad.
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